Canterbury coach Kevin Moore has promised supporters the club's NRL campaign is not dead and buried after Sunday's 23-12 loss to Melbourne left the Bulldogs keeping Cronulla and North Queensland company at the foot of the ladder.

The Bulldogs finished the regular season equal first in a turnaround season last year and much was expected in 2010.

But they are now languishing in 13th spot with just three wins from 11 games, the same number as expected strugglers the Sharks and Cowboys.

They were down 23-0 at halftime against a Storm outfit on Sunday with nothing official to play for and missing State of Origin stars Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Brett White and injured captain Cameron Smith.

Asked if the season was gone, Moore said: "I don't believe that's the case and if you ask anyone in the playing group, we're very much determined to hang tough and fight through this and turn it around very quickly.

"We haven't made the road forward an easy one but you've seen this competition.

"Parramatta, who were pretty much where we are five weeks ago, they won four on the trot and now they're up in the eight so if you string wins together you can rocket up the table pretty quickly." The Bulldogs have struggled with injury this year, but welcomed back Brett Kimmorley, Michael Ennis and Jamal Idris at AAMI Park only for the NSW trio's bad week to get worse.

"We've got to hang tight," Moore said.

"I know our fans will be disappointed in the way we performed and certainly myself and the players are disappointed in where we're at the moment.

"The last four weeks ... we've had quite a lot of troops out in a lot of those games.

"But we've played probably four of the best teams in the competition in that period when we have been understrength ... so we've got to be careful not to get too down on ourselves.

"We're playing a little bit at the moment like we're scared to lose so we need to try and turn that attitude around, be a bit more aggressive and confident." Cowboys coach Neil Henry would also be feeling the pressure after he quit his role as Queensland assistant coach this year to concentrate solely on turning his club's fortunes around.

They should have done that against Manly on Saturday night but for an almost comical number of second half missed opportunities that allowed the Sea Eagles to hang on to win 24-20.

That win moved Manly into second place ahead of Penrith, who crashed 42-22 to South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

St George Illawarra remain top of the ladder after Friday night's 30-0 shut-out of Parramatta but can be joined by Gold Coast on 18 points when the Titans host the Sydney Roosters on Monday night.

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